Revenge for Omagh as Bangor exits the Towns Cup

The small band of travelling supporters was caught by surprise when they got out of their vehicles on Saturday to sunshine and a cloudless sky. In Omagh, in February, this hadn’t happened before! Perhaps, they thought, this good fortune would continue into the game, but alas the better team won on the day as the constant pressure by the Omagh pack, finally told in the second half.

With 8 changes from last week’s outing against Grosvenor it was always going to be tough, but the young lads who came in certainly let no one down and only a bit of bad fortune and some great play by Omagh took the game away from Bangor in the final quarter.

Omagh kicked off with the hill in their favour and some enterprising back play from Bangor looked promising but time and again the last pass didn’t go to hand, or was deemed a forward pass or other such faux pas, keeping the pressure on the Bangor forwards for most of the first half. It was relative stalemate for 30 minutes with some staunch defending right on the Bangor line keeping Omagh from opening up their account. It was actually Bangor who scored first, on the half hour mark, through a Chris Morgan penalty after an Omagh player was deemed to dive off their feet in a ruck. Bangor were starting to come into the game a bit more, as they began to get their offloading game going and with some good work from the likes of Paddy Dornan and Matty Coey, helped them retain possession and string some phases together.

It was looking like it would remain 3-0 at halftime but on 37 minutes, Bangor were penalised for offside at the ruck and the Omagh outside half Warnock, slotted the kick to make the score 3-3 at half time.
From the side-lines the mutterings were that out of the two coaches it would have been Bangor who would have been happier with that score line as Omagh really had most of the possession, were playing much better and spent most of the half in the opposition twenty two. With the hill and slight breeze on their backs now, Bangor would fancy doing similar, but perhaps converting more of the play into points.

This wasn't to be the case however, and after some superb kicking from the Omagh half backs, especially McCain at scrum half, Bangor found themselves once again pinned in their own half, and with an unusually shaky lineout, Omagh piled on the pressure at the set piece, to allow their backs some quick ball to have a go at the Bangor backline. It was through one of these attacks that a tackle was missed in the midfield and the Omagh centre stormed through to score to the left of the posts. With an unsuccessful conversion attempt, the score was 8-3 to Omagh with 25 minutes to go.

But Bangor then began to play and, with 10 minutes of good play and sensible kicking options playing Bangor down in the opposition half, a string of phases concluded in the formidable Chris Schofield charging over to level up the score at 8-8. The difficult conversion struck the post, but with 20 minutes to go the game was there for either side. But it was Omagh who finished stronger and within 10 minutes had put the game to bed with two quick scores, one a well worked move, the other a cock up at a Bangor scrum allowing their open-side to dive on the ball to score; this took the game away from Bangor and on the full time whistle, it was Omagh who deserved to go through to the next round of the cup.

Bangor shouldn't be too disheartened by the defeat, within the young side that was put out, no one disgraced themselves and only that the odd time it seemed a lack of direction was the difference, it is hard when your most influential players are missing and it was a team thrown together at the last minute which only narrowly got beaten by a strong home outfit.

Special mention must also go out to Matt Leebody who stood up and was counted when asked if he could go from centre to the back row for this game, and without hesitation did so – a great club man in the making.
Next week sees the return of the league campaign, and with no distractions from any other competition perhaps a blessing, minds can focus on what lies ahead in what is a massive 8 weeks for the club. All support is not only welcome but essential, so dust off those hats and scarves and get up to the club to show your support for the remaining league games.

Bangor team: C Schofield, P Dornan, J Harrison, F Black, R Meeke, M Coey, M Leebody, R Corbett, M Baillie, R Law, D Charles, J Foulkes, C Morgan (c), S Addy, P Gray

Bangor scores: C Schofield (1T), C Morgan (1P)

(report courtesy of Captain Armstrong)